Guillaume Marion, Media365: published on Saturday September 28, 2024 at 10:10 a.m.
Friday, in Zurich, the German Niklas Behrens became world champion hopeful, while the French struggled to stand out during the U23 road race.
A little over a year after Axel Laurance’s great victory in Glasgow, the Frenchman has his successor. Indeed, on Friday afternoon, it was Niklas Behrens who became the new U23 world champion, after creating a sensation in Zurich. On a necessarily special day after the announcement of the death of the Swiss Muriel Furrer, the German runner (20 years old) therefore created a surprise by winning in the sprint ahead of the Slovakian Martin Svrcek (Soudal Quick-Step), while the Belgian Alec Segaert (Lotto Dstny) took third place 28 seconds behind. A member of the Lidl-Trek development team, Behrens patiently bided his time this Friday to make the difference during the final uphill part of the course. Among the favorites, the Swiss Jan Christen and the Mexican Isaac Del Toro, teammates at UAE Team Emirates, then failed to react in time.
A big change coming in 2025
As for the French, they unfortunately failed to shine during the U23 road race. With a 26th place, Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-BB Hotels) is the best ranked of the Blues in Zurich… Finally, note that the International Cycling Union (UCI) has officially modified its regulations for junior races. Thus, from 2025, riders under the age of 23 who are already professionals (i.e. under contract with a UCI WorldTeam or UCI ProTeam professional team) will no longer be able to participate in hopeful races during the Worlds in particular. . This decision will lead to quite a revolution in this category. Indeed, if we take for example the top 20 of the hopeful race this Friday, only seven runners could have participated, including the winner Behrens. In a year, in Kigali (Rwanda), we should therefore be entitled to a very different race in U23.
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